Most if not all packaged consumables marketed today at retail, including those in bottles and dispensers, contain a tamper evident device of some sort that enables a purchaser of those articles to determine if someone else previously opened and re-closed the package. If nothing else, due to the presence of that visible feature, the purchaser gains confidence that a miscreant has not tampered with the purity or amount of the packaged product and feels assured of the product's integrity.
Most closures seen in the marketplace, apart from the dispensing type closures, such as a screw-on type soda bottle cap, contain a tamper evident ring surrounding the base of the closure. That ring is connected to the closure by fragmentable webs. When the closure is assembled to the bottle, the tamper evident ring snaps in place over a corresponding ring formed on the neck finish of the bottle, latching the tamper evident ring in place. When the bottle cap is initially twisted to unscrew it from its place on the bottle, the tamper evident rings stays engaged to the bottle's neck, while under that twisting force the fragmentible webs break free from the closure. That broken web gives evidence that the closure has been opened. Should the purchaser encounter a soda bottle on the store shelf containing such a broken web, the purchaser knows that it's best to leave it remain.
Different from bottle caps, pouring spouts on packages of granulated materials and food stuffs are similarly protected by a frangible tape covering the pouring spout and a portion of the package wall supporting the spout. The consumer must remove or tear off that tape to pivot the spout open, leaving a tell-tale reminder that the package has been opened. Such a tamper evident spout arrangement is shown in the patent literature in the patent to Plaessman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,150 granted Aug. 25, 1992, entitled Pouring Spout.
Closures containing spouts are very different in construction from a pouring spout contained in a package and a screw-on plastic bottle cap. Like the bottle cap earlier referred to, the closure is assembled together from one or more component elements, one of which is a pivotable spout that is normally pivoted closed. Thereafter, that closure is attached to or otherwise mounted to a filled container to close the container and seal its contents inside. Typically, the closure is formed of a co-polymer polypropylene material, a plastic. The container associated with the closure is formed of a variety of available materials, such as a plastic, glass, or the like.
Providing a tamper evident spouted closure has not been self-evident. As example, as suggested by the earlier cited Plaessman '150 patent, one might seek to loop a length of a frangible adhesive tape over the spout and down along the sides of the container. That tape would be torn or broken when raising the spout to the open position. However, it is speculated that adhesive tape does not appear to adhere sufficiently well to some plastics as would reliably accomplish that. Like steaming a postage stamp from a letter, it is possible to tamper with a tape label in a similar manner to remove and replace the label without showing any evidence of tampering. For whatever reason, a tape is not known to be acceptable in the industry to show tampering of plastic closures.
Another approach to give evidence of tampering for spouted closures is offered in a patent to Wilson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,108, granted Mar. 28, 1978, entitled Tamper Evident One-Piece Dispensing Closures. The spout in Wilson's closure is one which pivots between an open position, with the spout raised upright, and a closed position, with the spout pivoted down, horizontal. In the structure disclosed in Wilson the closure and web are molded in one-piece. In that single piece, the pivotable spout for the closure is formed with its distal end secured by a frangible strap to the closure base, forming a string of serially attached elements. However, the rear or proximal end of the spout, the end which is intended to pivot during opening and closing, remains unconnected or free, as retrieved from the mold, and must be assembled into place to the pivots in an opening in the closure base.
During the assembly process, the spout is rotated over so that its rear end faces an opening in the closure base, instead of facing away, and, incident thereto, bends the strap over into a loop. Trunions or pivot shafts located at the proximal end of the spout are moved into the entrance in the closure base and are forced into place within pivot sockets in the cavity, essentially snap fitting the rear end of the spout in place. As thus assembled closed, the strap between the end of the spout and the closure base is unbroken.
Should one pull up on the spout to pivot the spout upright and thereby open the container, as is the normal procedure, the frangible strap breaks apart, leaving evidence that the closure has once been opened. The drawback is that should the pivot shaft be popped or snapped up from its seat in the cavity, the proximal end of the spout can be lifted out from the closure base, exposing the contents of the associated container, without breaking the frangible strap. A devious knowledgable individual could thus remove the spout from its seat, tamper with the container's contents and replace the spout to its pivot seat in the closure, without leaving evidence of tampering.
Although a purchaser observing the unbroken strap may gain confidence that the contents have not been tampered with, that confidence is undeserved, since the tamper evident feature is illusory. Wilson et al cannot ensure that the spout cannot be removed and reassembled in place. As an advantage, the present invention provides a tamper evident feature for a spouted closure that, unlike the structure in Wilson et al. cannot be defeated.
A better spouted closure, one in which the rear end of the spout cannot be removed from the closure base, is described in my prior patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,968 granted Feb. 28, 1995, entitled Dispensing Closure and Method, and also in that of my prior patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,327, hereafter sometimes referred to as the "Dark" patents. My '968 patent shows a closure in which a pivotal spout is pivotally connected along its lower end to the closure base by a hinge with other portions of that lower end are connected through an invertible diaphragm system to the closure base. The spout is open when the spout is raised or pivoted to an upright position; and it is closed by pivoting the spout over to a horizontal position, moving a portion of the diaphragm there with. Spouted closures incorporating the construction described in the Dark patents have previously been marketed by the Allied Mold and Die Company, Fontana, Calif., and are often referred to as the "invertible diaphragm" closure.
As described in the Dark patent, the closure is molded in one-piece from plastic material. Because the lower end of the spout is thus permanently attached directly and indirectly to the closure base, the spout's bottom end cannot be removed from the closure's base portion, unlike that spout shown in the Wilson et al closure. Because Wilson's technique requires that the proximal end to the spout initially be detached, it is not possible to employ Wilson's technique with spouted closures of the kind described in the Dark patent.
Accordingly, a principal object of my invention is to provide a tamper evident device for a closure that contains a non-detachable pivotable dispensing spout.
And a further object of my invention is to provide a tamper evident spouted closure with a tamper evident device that cannot be defeated.